Feds warn NJ Transit could blow December deadline to have safety system running

Federal officials warned eight railroads, including NJ Transit, that they’re in danger of not having a mandated safety system tested and running by Dec. 31, deadline, which could bring commuter rail service to a halt.

NJ Transit was one of three commuter railroads warned by the Federal Railroad Administration, based on a fourth quarter 2019 progress report to install Positive Train Control. PTC uses computers’ trackside transponders and radios to stop a train if the operator disobeys speed limits or signals.

The FRA report said NJ Transit had none of its 317 miles of track in revenue service testing as of the end of 2019. Only 17 miles of track were in field testing. It also said roughly 166 employees remained to be trained.

A report by the state auditor released in January also questioned if NJ Transit would make the Dec. 31 PTC deadline and said the budget for the project had ballooned to $500 million of which $339 million has been spent so far.

In October, a vice president from Parsons Inc., NJ Transits PTC contractor told officials the project was five months behind schedule due to a software problem that pushed the start of testing PTC from a November start date. But in February, NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett said that the software problem was resolved one month early.

To complete revenue testing, NJ Transit has to complete a minimum of 384 consecutive runs on the M&E between Denville and Summit without a critical anomaly and make monthly reports, with documentation, to the FRA.

Applications to test PTC on other lines will occur after successful completion of the revenue service testing on the M&E, officials said.

“This authorization allows NJ Transit to remain on pace to meet the December 31, 2020 federal deadline to have Positive Train Control (PTC) fully implemented on all of our rail lines,” said Nancy Snyder. “We appreciate the continued support from the FRA, and Administrator Batory specifically, as we continue RSD testing over the next several months.”

“We are on track to meet the federal compliance deadline,” Corbett told the panel. “Everyone at NJT understands we have a lot of work to do.”

If that deadline is not met, Amtrak could refuse to allow NJ Transit trains to use the Northeast Corridor Line to reach New York or Philadelphia. If NJ Transit operates rail service in its lines after the deadline, it could be fined $27,000 a day. NJ Transit’s current Automatic Train Control safety system will remain active during PTC testing on trains

In 2018, NJ Transit mounted a Herculean effort to meet a Dec. 31, 2018 deadline two weeks early to have the first phase of PTC installed. The cost to riders was a spike in canceled trains, suspension of the Atlantic City Rail Line, the Princeton Shuttle and direct off-peak Raritan Valley Line service to and from New York.

Those services have been restored, but individual train service that was suspended on other lines has not returned.